Human adenoviruses (Ads) have been classified into six species (A to F), currently containing 51 serotypes. Most Ad serotypes utilize the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) as a primary attachment receptor (Bergelson et al., 1997). This is, however, not the case for species B Ad serotypes. Recently, we have suggested a new grouping of species B Ads based on their receptor usage (Tuve et al., 2006). Group 1 (Ad16, 21, 35, 50) nearly exclusively utilize CD46 as a receptor; Group 2 (Ad3, Ad7, 14) share a common, unidentified receptor/s, which is not CD46 and which was tentatively named receptor X; Group 3 (Ad11) preferentially interacts with CD46, but also utilizes receptor X if CD46 is blocked.
Species B Ads are common human pathogens. Since 2005, a simultaneous emergence of diverse species B serotypes at the majority of US military training facilities was observed. This included serotypes Ad3, Ad7, and Ad14 (Metzgar et al., 2007). In 2007 a new, highly pathogenic strain and possibly more virulent strain of Ad14, Ad14a, has been discovered at several sites in the US and in Asia (Louie et al., 2008; Tate et al., 2009). We recently demonstrated that Ad14a belongs to species B group 2 Ads with regards to their receptor usage (Wang et al., 2009). Collectively, all receptor X utilizing serotypes (Ad3, Ad7, Ad14, Ad14a, and Ad11) are referred to herein as AdB-2/3.
AdB-2/3 have great relevance as gene transfer vectors, particularly with regard to tumors of epithelial origin, representing most solid tumors (Yamamoto and Curiel, 2010). Epithelial cells maintain several intercellular junctions and an apical—basal polarity. Key features of epithelial cells are conserved in epithelial cancers in situ and in cancer cell lines (Turley et al., 2008). Both CAR and CD46 are often trapped in tight and adherence junctions of epithelial cancer cells and are not accessible to Ads that use these attachment receptors (Coyne and Bergelson, 2005; Strauss et al., 2009). In contrast, AdB-2/3 efficiently infect epithelial cancer cells, which is accomplished in part through induction of processes that are reminiscent of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) (Strauss et al., 2009). Another distinctive feature of AdB-2/3 is their ability to produce subviral dodecahedral particles during their replication, consisting of Ad fiber and penton base (Norrby et al., 1967). Penton-Dodecahedra (PtDd) cannot assemble from full-length penton base protein, but require spontaneous N-terminal truncation by proteolysis between residues 37 and 38 (Fuschiotti et al., 2006). This cleaved site is conserved in Ad3, Ad7, Ad11, and Ad14 but is not present in Ad2 and Ad5. In the case of Ad3 the PtDd are formed at a massive excess of 5.5×106 PtDd per infectious virus (Fender et al., 2005), and it has been suggested that PtDd enhance Ad3 infectivity by disturbing intercellular junctions, thus favoring virus spreading (Walters et al., 2002).